• Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the six-week blockade to be eased.
• This happened because the country recorded a significant reduction in severe Covid-19 infections.
• The new protocol will see the economy return to normal from Monday.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered a six-week easing of the Covid-19 blockade on Friday after a dramatic reduction in serious cases of the disease.

Infection surged during the second wave caused by the highly contagious delta mutant, but since the blockade, authorities have said that daily hospitalizations of severe and serious patients are now at their current daily peak of 204. It is said that it has decreased to 50.

Under the new measures, bus operators have been ordered to limit passengers to 50% of vehicle capacity, but most public and private transportation is set to resume on Monday.

Schools and places of worship remain closed and the curfew from dusk to dawn remains in force, but the number of employees allowed to go to the office has increased from 10% to 20% of the workforce. To do.

“If these measures are taken, we will prevent the third wave,” Museveni said in a speech aired to the country. “We can defeat this disease.”

Nevertheless, he warned that if people did not follow the rules, stricter measures could be imposed again.

“False prophet”

According to Ministry of Health statistics, Uganda has registered 93 927 Covid-19 cases, of which 2690 are fatal, but senior private clinicians say the actual number of deaths is much higher. ..

Museveni blamed what he called a “false prophet” for criticizing the government’s actions, claiming that “not hearing” “caused all these problems.”

During the 42-day blockage, many of the rules were incompletely enforced, as Kampara’s characteristic traffic jam roads remained mostly congested and restaurants continued to serve seated customers. ..

According to Museveni, the positive rate has now dropped from a high of 22% to an average of 8%, but tests remain very low.

Like many African countries, vaccine deployment has been delayed due to vaccine indifference and restricted supply, with only about 1.1 million doses to date, about 5% of the government’s target. ..

Uganda plans to increase its vaccine supply from abroad soon, but Museveni said, “Uganda has embarked on its own vaccine production capacity to store vaccines by international countries.”

Live | All the latest news about Covid-19 in South Africa and elsewhere

Last year, 45 million landlocked nations took drastic steps to limit their movements when there were only a handful of cases of colonavirus. It imposed one of the earliest blockades and closures on the continent.

When the number of cases decreased, it gradually relaxed those restrictions, but in mid-June Museveni announced additional suppression as the infection increased again.

Last week, government officials said at least 800 people were given a fake coronavirus vaccine-some were injected with water by “malicious” doctors and health care workers.

Despite the impact of the pandemic on the poor in the country, there was anger this week after the government’s exposure to the MPs for 25 million euros to buy a new car.

Following many criticized attempts to distribute basic food relief to poor urban citizens during the first blockade last year, the government will send cash payments directly to vulnerable Ugandan mobile accounts in July. It was started.

About 500,000 people were expected to receive $ 28, but the project is plagued by problems.

Subscribe to News24

Source: News24